Let Light Arise
by Anika Malfoy
Summary: Sokka is injured and nearly killed when Zula captures the Avatar and his friends. When Zuko rescues them, his only intent was to keep his sister from bringer the Avatar to their father, but he ended up with far more than he barganed for.


Title: Let Light Arise

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own twisted thoughts.

A/N: I have only recently become a fan of Avatar, though I become obsessed with it immediately, so if any of my information is wrong, or anyone is OOC (though I don't think that will be a problem) then let me know so that I can fix it. Thanx.

Also, I've looked through a ton of sites trying to figure out Zuko's little sister's name. Some sites say it is Azula, others say it is Zula. If you have any idea, please let me know. For now, I will use Zula, because that's what my most reliable source is informing me is correct.

Special thanks to Regulus of Slytherin, because she has encouraged and even agreed to proof-read this story for me.

Chapter One: Getsuei

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"When I was little my mother told me a story of a young warrior who lived near the ocean. She said that he was strong and brave," blue eyes focused on the ground. "One day there was a battle that took the warrior from his village. For two years he fought and won, and every night the warrior would bathe in the ocean and pray to the spirits for forgiveness for the lives that he had taken.

"It didn't take long for him to fall in love with the only female strong enough to look upon the battlefield every night and not turn away in despair. The warrior spent every minute he could gazing into her face and longing to touch her, but knowing that he never could. He had fallen in love with the moon, and he knew that her spirit was as unreachable as her face was beautiful.

"One night, torn with desperation, the warrior climbed to the top of the highest mountain he could find. He prayed to the spirits that, if his love was pure enough, they would allow the wind to carry him to his love. When he jumped off the side of the cliff, his eyes never left the face of the moon. The spirits were so impressed with his dedication that the ocean rose up and caught him, gently bringing him down to the beach. They couldn't bring him to the moon, he was human and they were not. Instead, the ocean spirit touched him and gave him a gift of water. The moon spirit reached down and placed a part of herself into his heart, so that he would always feel closer to her than any other being. He became the first of the water-benders."

With a nearly silent sob, tear-filled blue eyes rose and took in the face of the full moon. "When I was young, I thought that the story was amazing, that the warrior was so lucky to have been touched by the spirits," a tongue came out to wet chapped lips, and another sob escaped. "Now I know the truth, though. The spirits didn't give the warrior a gift, they cursed him. If they had been so impressed with his love, they should have been merciful and let the warrior fall to his death. Instead, they gave him the smallest taste of what life would be like if he could hold his love in his arms, they brought him closer than anyone had ever been before, and then they told him that he had to live with that and nothing more."

The sobs were stronger now, and speech was becoming difficult. "They…made him suffer through life always feeling his love so close, and still more unreachable than she had ever been. Now he felt the tiniest bit of what he…what he could have felt, if he had ever been with her. The spirits gave him a way to imagine, so much more clearly, what he could never have. They…" the blue eyes closed and teeth harshly bit at a bottom lip.

The wind gently swirled around the figure, standing alone on the beach. Moonlight caressed the figure's face, as tears streamed down his cheeks. It would have been an awe-inspiring sight had anyone been near enough to see it. A young man standing in the sand, just out of reach of the waves, crying and telling the moon the story of his people, the story of himself. The story was told in a voice like the breath that comes out and crystallizes on a cold winters day, the words embraced the air before the boy's lips for the briefest of moments before the wind carried them away.

"When I grew up a little, I realized that the story was just…a story. It was beautiful, but unrealistic, and most likely not true. And then I met you…I met you and loved you and now…now you're gone. I miss you Yue." Sokka clenched his fists, and forced the tears back.

"I don't know why I keep coming out here. You can't hear me, you can't answer me. You are with the moon spirit now, and I'll never see you again. I don't know what time is like for you, if you even have it. For me, it's been a month since you gave your life force back to the moon, and I can't stop missing you. And I can't stop thinking about that stupid story," Sokka's words were harsh now, and growing louder, "and how I bet that the warrior would have given his powers back in an instant, just to be with the woman that he loved. The spirits offered me a mercy that I can't bend. I can't feel the moon and the ocean pulling at my heart and constantly reminding me of what I can never have."

It was enough for tonight. Sokka didn't think that he could have kept the string of words going, not without breaking down and shouting at the spirits. His mind told him that the pain wouldn't last much longer, that he hadn't known Yue long enough to be as in love with her as he thought he was. He was just mourning now, and it would pass. That knowledge did nothing to ease the pain in his heart.

Sokka turned and began tracing his steps back to the camp where Katara and Aang were sleeping. He wondered if Katara would have woken up and worried about him again, the way she had the last few nights. He hoped not. He was the one who was supposed to be looking out for her, not her for him.

Sokka raised his head as a flash of orange light lit up the beach. Fire-benders. He started to run, desperate to get to Katara's side before anything could happen to her. He was coming within sight of the camp now, and could just make our Katara freezing three benders, while Aang lifted another into the air and sent him crashing into the oncoming soldiers. They were horribly outnumbered.

Cursing himself for not being there when the fire-benders attacked, Sokka forced himself to run faster. Katara turned and saw him, freezing for a moment before screaming out.

"Sokka!"

It was all the warning he had before feeling the arrow slice into his shoulder. Sokka turned and watched as a black haired girl smirked and lowered her bow. He could feel the world going dark, and knew that there must have been poison on the arrow. With the last of his energy, Sokka turned again and watched as Katara was grabbed from behind and Aang was hit over the head with the hilt of a sword and knocked unconscious.

The last thought that skirted across his mind before everything went black was that they had been captured. The Fire Nation had captured the Avatar.

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A/N: Getsuei means moonlight in Japanese.

P.S. No, this is not a one-shot. There will be more to the story…and soon too.


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